You can’t turn around in New York City without seeing Questlove. He DJ’s at Brooklyn Bowl every Thursday, he’s on late night TV every night with The Roots, and he always seems to pop up on the drum set whenever there’s some sort of superjam. Adding to his NYC empire, Questlove is set to open up a new gourmet fast food restaurant, Hybird, in Chelsea Market. A collaboration with Stephen Starr of Buddokan and Morimoto, the project will blend the quality of Starr’s upscale joints with the soul and style of the famous drummer.
The restaurant’s soft opening was yesterday, where the menu, consisting of ‘Love’s Dumsticks’ and a variety of dumplings, with fillings such as ‘mornay’s truffled eggs’, ‘tofu tofu’, and ‘creme de la crab’, was debuted. On the sweeter side, the restaurant features a variety of cupcakes, including ‘miso ho-ney’ and ‘sexual chocolate’, as well as a ‘love slush’. The restaurant will officially open Saturday, May 18th.
Mixing music and food is nothing new to Stephen Starr – before building his food empire, he ran several venues that served food by day and music by night, eventually moving onto large scale shows by Bruce Springsteen, U2, Madonna, and Lionel Richie, before being bought out by Electric Factory Concerts. He now operates many highly successful restaurants around the country.